


Earth

by Helis_von_Askir



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:20:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25094491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helis_von_Askir/pseuds/Helis_von_Askir
Summary: What if Earth is our Earth but not 150.000 years in the past but 2.000 years in the future?What if the Cylon Final Five didn't start out as Cylons?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Just because I can.  
> I don't owe BSG 2003 or Stargate, though I wish I did.

All their hopes and dreams that had kept them going the last three, almost four years had come crashing down when they stepped foot on fabled Earth. Earth, a radiated wasteland. How had it come to this? When had it happened?

“Why would God lead us here?” D’Anna asked desperate. “Was it all lies?”

“No, more like a bad cosmic joke.” Tigh muttered.

“The prophecy was true enough,” Adama sighed. “But the prophecy never said that we would find a paradise, or even something habitable, only Earth. And we found Earth.”

“But we can’t stay here,” Lee added, looking up from the soldier who took radiation readings. “Not long term.”

“Sir, Admiral!” Dee suddenly called from farther on. “I found something. A kind of…memorial, I think.”

They all hurried over to where Dee was standing in front of a kind of pillar that stood just at the edge of the water on a little platform that kept the pillar dry.

“Can anyone read this?” Laura wanted to know, running her hand over the carved symbols on its surface. But she only got negative responses, even from the Final Four Cylons. “Would have been too easy.” She muttered, but she agreed with Dee, it looked like a memorial or something like that.

“If you didn’t build this, then who did?” Lee asked as he stepped closer.

“Beats me.” Tigh shrugged. “Maybe we had friends that put it up, you know, after this happened.”

Lee leaned forward get a better look at the symbols over Laura’s shoulder and ran a hand over the nearest line. The moment his hand touched the stone, or whatever it was, the symbols gave off a light and the top of the pillar moved upward a few inches.

“What did you just do?” D’Anna demanded to know.

“I just touched it.” Lee had snatched his hand back, but the pillar remained as it was now.

“So did I, but it did nothing.” Laura pointed out.

Lee could only shrug. He had no idea why that thing did what it did. “Maybe I just hit the power button.”

Out of the light appeared the figure of a woman dressed in a flowing white dress, looking at them patiently. It was some kind of hologram as they could kind of see through her.

“What is that?” Dee whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Tyrol wanted to know.

Dee shrugged. “Seemed appropriate.”

Laura stepped in front of the hologram. “Hello?”

“Greetings.” The hologram replied in a pleasant voice.

“Interactive, nice.” D’Anna said and stepped next to Roslin. “What happened here?”

“The Goa’uld Systemlords launched a last attack before their ultimate defeat.” The hologram replied.

“Goa what?” Tigh asked. “The frak is going on here?”

Surprisingly enough the hologram turned to him. “You did fight them before, Saul Tigh. Your assistance was one of the reasons you and your fellow replicators were allowed to settle on Earth, after the downgrade.”

Everyone just stared at the hologram who looked as serene as ever.

“I’m sorry, what’s a replicator?” Caprica Six wanted to know.

“An artificial intelligence created by the Alterans approximately ten thousand years ago in a neighbouring galaxy.” The woman replied.

“And…and we are such replicators?” Torri asked. “But we’re Cylons.”

“I am unfamiliar with the term.” The hologram stated.

“Wait, wait, what downgrade?” Lee cut in. “Are you saying the Cylons, I mean, replicators, were once even more advanced than they are now?”

“Yes, the replicator bodies are made up of billions of microscopic nanites, allowing them to take on whatever form they wished, infiltrate computer systems with ease, converting ships and entire planets into recourses for replicating.” The hologram explained. “After making changes to their own base code a group of replicators split from the rest and formed an alliance with the Tau’ri of Earth. They wished to live among humans and therefore agreed to downgrade from their nanite form to something less advanced, more organic, thereby rendering them less dangerous to the human population.”

“And we agreed to this?” Anders snorted. “Why did we agree to this?”

“You wished to pursue the Path of Ascension, but you were convinced that you could not do that in your old form. That being organic would help you.”

“Path of Ascension.” Adama echoed. “I think you will have to start at the beginning.”

The hologram cocked its head to one side. “The request is too widespread for answer.”

“Can you give us rundown of the history of this world since its settlement of the 13th tribe?” Lee asked.

The hologram nodded. “The return of humanities lost children was welcomed by the human population, though the reason for them leaving Kobol led to some tension that took several decades to be resolved.”

“Returning? Lost children?” Laura looked ready to just fall over.

“Okay, okay, can you give us an overview of this planets history? Go as far back as you can.” Lee said. Somehow this was not turning out the way anyone could have expected.

“We can’t tell the fleet any of this.” Roslin stated quietly after the hologram had stopped speaking. What had been revealed to them was mind-blowing, to say the least.

“We can tell them there are other humans out there.” Lee said. “Just very far away.” When the attack by the Systemlords had happened, seven million humans had been evacuated to what the hologram referred to as the City of Atlantis, situated in a neighboring galaxy called Pegasus, of all things.

“They were here two years ago.” Bill muttered. “If we hadn’t stopped on New Caprica we would have run right into them.”

Eight hundred forty-two planetary days to be exact. The descendants of the Tau’ri, as the people of Earth had been known, the Lanteans, as they called themselves now, came back to this planet every century to take readings to ascertain whether the planet was habitable again, updated this memorial and then returned home, to Atlantis, the lost city, not so much lost as unimaginable out of reach.

“Do you wish to initiate contact?” The hologram suddenly asked.

“I…I don’t…” Roslin trailed off.

“We’ll get back to you on that.” Lee stepped in and turned to his father. “We need to return to the fleet and tell them something now before they start to get nervous.”

“That we got it all wrong? That this is where we came from and not Kobol?” Bill asked.

Lee sighed. “Maybe not that, but that there are humans out there. That we are not alone. That we might even can contact them.”

“Who says they want contact with you? With us?” D’Anna spoke up.

“Only one way to find out.” Lee stated.

“And they took us in, back in the day.” Tyrol said. “I mean, we were obviously not always friends, when we were these Replicators. But they took us in.”

“After downgrading you.” Caprica Six pointed out.

“To which we agreed. We didn’t have to agree to that, right?” Tyrol asked the hologram.

“No, you were free to remain in your original bodies, but you would not have been permitted to live on Earth.” The hologram confirmed.

“But we would have been free to leave, right? Find another world?” Tyrol pressed.

The hologram nodded. “Yes, you were allies at that point. Destroying you would have served no purpose, it would have been even counterproductive.”

“Alright then. We send them a message, ask if they can come pick us up, or help us find a world in this galaxy.” Lee suggested. “Worst case they say no, but then we’re not off any worse than before.”

They returned to the ships in orbit to inform the fleet of what had been found on the surface. Only a small group stayed behind to guard the memorial. And Kara, she and Leoben had wandered off searching for something. Lee didn’t think she really knew what she was looking for.

His father took Laura to his quarters so she could rest. The revelations had been too much for her, she needed time to process everything. They all did, unfortunately Lee didn’t as it fell to him now to tell the fleet some of what they had found.

“Hey, you look…very pondering.” Dee stated when she found him in the conference room.

Lee smiled humorlessly. “Just trying to find the right wording before putting this out.” He handed her the statement he had written so far.

“It’s not bad. Very hopeful.” She said after reading it.

“Not too campy?” Lee wanted to know.

Dee smiled. “No, not at all. It’s good, it’s what people need to hear now. And it’s even all true…You’re a bad politician, telling the truth.”

Lee chuckled. “I’m working on that. I also need to figure out what message to send. What to say to convince these Lanteans to come to the rescue.”

“Something soapy, I ‘d suggest.” Dee stated and sat down opposite him. “You know, something that hits the feels.”

Lee raised an eyebrow at her. “Soapy? You mean like those daytime melodramas? I never really watched those shows back home.”

“I, on the other hand, watched them religiously as a kid.” Dee said and took his pen. “How about you get this out and I’ll start on the message?”

Of course his father had his own ideas about what to send. Nothing that was in any way compromising their security, but enough military facts to make it clear that help for the civilians was appreciated. That along with Lee and Dee wrote together made for a good message to send off to another galaxy.

“I still can’t believe that they went so far away.” Dee mused. They were in Lee’s quarters on Colonial One. He had basically taken them over once Laura had moved in with his father. These two were not as discreet about their relationship as one would assume.

“The Goa’uld couldn’t reach them there. Probably sounded like a very good idea at the time.” Lee replied. Their dinner of algae steak forgotten on the table before them. “I mean, if we can go there, the other Cylons will never find us either.”

“Hmm,” Dee hummed and leaned back against him. “But I still wonder about these replicators. Why downgrade, I mean, really? If they were so advanced they could have taken over the galaxy, right?”

“Maybe they just didn’t want to.” Lee suggested. “Maybe this Path of Ascension was more important to them.”

“Maybe, but then why did they screw up our Cylons when they gave them human form?” Dee asked.

Lee shrugged. “Nobody’s perfect, I guess. I’m sure we’re getting some more answers once the Lanteans make contact.”

“If they make contact.” Dee pointed out.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Lee kissed her temple. “They’re human, that means they’re too frakking curious for their own good.”

Dee laughed before turning serious again. “I really hope so. I’m so tired of running.”

Lee nodded. “Me too.”

End


End file.
